Chinese water supply company saves energy and water with DDD

With automated pump control and by monitoring the water network in the city of Chiping, the local water supply company can adapt the water pressure to the citizens’ needs. This reduces energy consumption and will help prevent new leaks from occurring.

Chiping County Water Supply Company has an ardent wish to save energy. The company has therefore decided to work with Grundfos on a project to implement the Demand Driven Distribution (DDD) solution.

- When providing the city of Chiping with water, our pumps run all day long using a lot of energy. This is a cost we really want to reduce. With the DDD solution, we can reduce the energy consumption considerably. This is why we joined the project, says General Manager Mr Lv.

The DDD solution, which consists of several, parallel connected pumps, running one or more at the time according to the consumers’ needs, will not only save energy due to the intelligent controller adapting output to the actual needs for water throughout the day. It will also ensure that the network is less stressed than normal, which means water is not wasted due to leakages. In addition, the pressure control will help prevent new leaks from occurring.

An intelligent system
The DDD solution not only features parallel connected pumps but also includes remote sensors in the network and a controller, which is the brain of the system. Until now Chiping County Water Supply Company has controlled the system manually, but step by step the DDD solution is being implemented and General Manager Mr Lv is pleased with the results so far:

- I think the project is going very well and it is very interesting to cooperate with Grundfos in this area. I am satisfied with the results until now and I look forward to continuing the journey towards the optimal DDD solution, so we can reduce our energy consumption as much as possible.

The Chiping Country Water Supply Company’s plant provides water for more than 100,000 people and every day 12,000 m3 of water flows through the network.

Pioneering new technologies
The cooperation with Chiping Country Water Supply Company is an important project for the water utility business in China, Mads Sckerl, Water Utility Sales Director at Grundfos China, explains:

- We want to pioneer new technologies and with DDD we have a great opportunity to do so. This project proves that we have a great solution to present to our customers and I really believe the DDD system is the future for water supply.

He is glad that Chiping Country Water Supply Company has decided to implement the DDD solution and he hopes that others will follow in their footsteps.

- I believe the general awareness of and focus on water and energy loss among the water authorities and supply companies will increase in the coming years, as water is a scarce resource in China due to the increasing urbanisation, he says.